Just as Bibi Dong was looking on with envy...
The scene in the sky suddenly changed. A young man appeared in a secluded courtyard in Spirit City.
He wore an old-fashioned gray robe, had a crew cut and a bushy beard, and was hurriedly packing his belongings.
He cursed nonstop under his breath.
"Bibi Dong, that fool! She actually offended the Pope so badly.
Damn it, is she trying to get me killed?"
As Yu Xiaogang cursed, he swept all the Spirit Hall books filling the shelves in the room into his Soul Tool.
"I can't stay here long. I have to leave right away.
Otherwise, Spirit Hall definitely won't let me off."
He put on a hooded coat and kept to inconspicuous paths. Soon, he fled Spirit City on horseback.
"X-Xiaogang?"
...Original timeline...
Pope Dong looked stunned. Her chilling presence boomed down upon the entire Pope's Hall, and the two Titled Douluo, Ghost and Chrysanthemum, immediately dropped to one knee.
How terrifying. When did Her Holiness the Pope attain such cultivation?
Chrysanthemum Douluo was shaken, but he also took some pleasure in her misfortune.
Dumbfounded, aren't you?
The man you love is calling you a fool!
The man you were willing to throw everything away to run to is terrified you'll drag him down. He's already abandoned you.
To betray Spirit Hall for a man like that... Bibi Dong, oh, Bibi Dong, how can you be so shameless?
"Impossible!"
A monstrous pressure swept through the Pope's Hall. Ghost and Chrysanthemum Douluo offered no resistance, letting the mountain-toppling, sea-overturning Soul Power hurl them through the doors and out of the hall.
"Impossible!"
Bibi Dong's eyes were red, a phantom image of the Spider Emperor appeared behind her, and the face of Rakshasa flickered into view.
"It's fake. Xiaogang would never abandon me!
Never!"
Bibi Dong felt as though her heart was about to shatter. Her decades of steadfast resolve and hatred had suddenly lost their purpose.
"Hahahahaha! Bibi Dong, serves you right!"
Qian Daoliu laughed high in the sky. How could he not hate Bibi Dong?
But Qian Renxue had already lost her father. She could not lose her mother too.
Even if that mother was unfit, she still had to be there.
And now, sensing Bibi Dong's breakdown, Qian Daoliu could hardly describe how pleased he felt.
"If only my son were like the one in the sky..."
Shrek Academy.
Everyone looked at Grandmaster, only to see the panic on his face.
"No, that's not me! How could I possibly abandon Dong'er?"
Yu Xiaogang denied it without hesitation, but his image in the eyes of the Shrek group had already begun to crumble.
Only Tang San still defended him. "That's a different world. Things unfolded differently there than in ours.
So that Yu Xiaogang isn't my teacher."
"Yes, yes, Xiao San is right."
Yu Xiaogang nodded repeatedly, but his fists clenched tightly inside his sleeves.
Damn that sky screen! Why did it have to expose me too?
Bibi Dong was so stupid. Was I supposed to die alongside her?
Yu Xiaogang even deceived himself, unaware that his spineless behavior had become a laughingstock across the entire Douluo Continent.
This was the son of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect's master?
What a disgrace.
And he called himself some bullshit theory grandmaster?
"Hahaha, why am I starting to feel sorry for the holy maiden Bibi Dong?
That Yu Xiaogang is no decent human being either."
"Birds of a feather. Neither of them is any good!"
...Sky-screen timeline...
Above Spirit City, Qian Xunji's gaze was indifferent, and his majestic voice echoed over the city.
"Bibi Dong, holy maiden of Spirit Hall, has committed three crimes.
As the holy maiden of Spirit Hall, Bibi Dong enjoyed the honor of the holy temple and the admiration of the people.
Yet, as holy maiden, she failed to conduct herself with propriety and instead used her lofty position to indulge her infatuation with a man who scurries like a fly and skulks like a dog, disgracing the holy temple's dignity. This is her first crime!"
Bibi Dong hung suspended in midair by golden chains. Her body trembled, but she bit her lip and said nothing.
Now, all she hoped for was that once her teacher's judgment ended, she and Yu Xiaogang could fly away together as a pair.
"As the holy maiden of Spirit Hall, she privately passed on to another the secrets Spirit Hall had accumulated over generations, all for her own selfish desires.
That Yu Xiaogang's 'Ten Core Competencies Theory' came, word for word, from Spirit Hall's library. Yet he has claimed it as his own and even said it was the fruit of his research?
A mere level-twenty Soul Grandmaster, and he thinks himself fit to discourse on the heights of heaven and the breadth of earth?
You are responsible for the exposure of these treasured secret texts. How is that any different from leaking secrets to the enemy?
This is your second crime!"
At these words, Yu Xiaogang jolted all over beneath the sky screen, his face turning deathly pale.
Ning Rongrong sneered. "No wonder Grandmaster is so learned. It turns out he had a holy maiden secretly sharing her affections with him."
Tang San's expression instantly turned cold. "Ning Rongrong, watch your words.
Bibi Dong passed those things on without permission. My teacher didn't steal them."
"Xiao San is right. Bibi Dong did all that on her own.
Besides, I was so thirsty for knowledge at the time. How could I have paid attention to all that?"
Yu Xiaogang hurried to distance himself from it too.
But Ning Rongrong seemed to have spotted the key point and began speaking sarcastically. "Yes, yes, it was all Bibi Dong's fault alone. It had nothing to do with Grandmaster.
Bibi Dong was the one chasing after him. She was just that shameless!"
"You!!!"
Yu Xiaogang realized he had misspoken. Even the way Tang San looked at him had changed.
He had been just as quick to distance himself from her as he was in the sky screen.
"Hmph, you don't know what things were like back then. How could you understand my difficulties?
Xiao San, no matter what happens, your teacher won't harm you.
Besides, aren't you the ones who ultimately benefit from what I've learned and created?"
"Teacher, I believe you."
In the end, Tang San sided with Grandmaster and chose to believe him once again.
But a seed of doubt had already been planted. Ning Rongrong in particular had seen and heard more than even Dai Mubai. Once the rose-colored lens through which she viewed someone was shattered, everything was different.
It would not be so easy to fool her again.
In the sky screen...
Bibi Dong raised her head, still defiant. "Teacher, he's not trash. You don't understand him at all."
"Silence, you fool!"
"You still have the face to call me teacher?
You were my only personally taught disciple. I was both teacher and father to you, and I gave you everything, using secret medicines to temper your body so you could absorb a thousand-year ring as your First Soul Ring.
I gave you a top-grade eighty-thousand-year Soul Bone and an immortal-grade herb rarely seen in the world, allowing the quality of your Twin Martial Souls to advance even further.
Seventeen years of raising you, fourteen years of nurturing you, and none of it can outweigh a few sweet words from a piece of trash!
Even beasts know the debt they owe when they kneel to suckle, yet you, Bibi Dong, are ungrateful and faithless, betraying your teacher and the path. You're worse than a beast!
This is your third crime!"
Bibi Dong was stunned. She was only pursuing love. What had she done wrong?
Could the holy maiden of Spirit Hall not have love of her own?
Why would her teacher not understand her?
"Lastly, as the holy maiden of Spirit Hall, you bore the responsibility of becoming the next Pope. Spirit Hall paved your road to the summit and built your foundation for godhood, waiting only for your cultivation to reach completion so you could strengthen Spirit Hall.
Yet for the sake of your own romance, you cast Spirit Hall aside like a worn-out shoe and treated its ten-thousand-year glory like child's play!
Ungrateful and faithless, you betrayed your teacher and betrayed Spirit Hall.
This is your fourth and most unforgivable crime!
Bibi Dong, do you confess to the crimes listed above?"
Qian Xunji's voice burned with anger, pressing down on the whole of Spirit City until no one dared make a sound.
Tears streamed down Bibi Dong's face. She had never meant to betray anyone; she only wanted to be with Xiaogang.
Why did her teacher insist on making her choose?
That defiant, proud figure appeared in her mind once more. Bibi Dong smiled, a desolate smile.
"I, your disciple, confess!"
She confessed, willing to bear the weight of so many grave crimes just to be with Yu Xiaogang.
The judgment was over. Her teacher should now let her and Xiaogang be together.
It was only a little disgrace. She could bear it.
But the moment after she confessed, Qian Xunji suddenly rose from his throne in the void.
"Good!
In that case, I hereby declare..."